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As you know, strength is an essential attribute for any player. It provides a competitive edge when vying for rebounds, maintaining position, and driving to the basket. 

While attributes like speed, shooting, and ball-handling skills are highly praised, the significance of physical strength is frequently overlooked. 

Kostas Chatzichristos is currently the Director of Performance at the Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. He is responsible for player athletic development and rehabilitation, as well as medical and performance staff management.

Coach Chatzichristos’ ‘In Season Strength and Power Training’ clinic is the perfect tool for basketball coaches and players to employ when building out their own strength programs. 

Why Strength is Important in Basketball? 

Why strength is important in Basketball?

Coach Chatzichristos says that having an “injury prevention” strength-building program isn’t accurate because there’s no way of truly preventing an injury from occurring in an athletic competition, but you can try to minimize the possibility of somebody getting hurt. 

The reason that strength building when it comes to minimizing injury is due to the joint stability it provides, the muscle fiber strength it offers, it strengthens tendons, and it also helps improve fatigue resistance. 

Program Design

Program Design

When designing an in-season strength program for a basketball team, a coach must consider that, regardless of what level you’re going to be coaching at (assuming it isn’t professional basketball), your players are already going to be pressed for time. 

This means that when you get your players into the weight room, you need to make the time efficient and engaging, as players who aren’t as into strength training can get bored. 

It’s also important to alternate workouts between hard and medium. Not every day should be a hard day (especially during the season), but not every day can be easy or medium because progress must be made. 

Weekly Schedule Overview

Weekly Schedule Overview

In the sample weekly strength training program that Coach Chatzichristos curates, the first day after a game should be meant for rest (at least in the weight room) for all the players who played a lot in the game. 

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